Service Management and Marketing: Managing the Service Profit Logic, 4th Edition

CHAPTER 17CONCLUSIONS: MANAGING SERVICE AND RELATIONSHIPS

“Good intellectual analysis and thorough planning of a service-oriented business is valueless unless management has the determination, courage and strength needed to implement their visions and plans.”

INTRODUCTION

This final chapter will summarize the essence of service management and service strategy. First, implications for management of the Service Profit Logic are presented. Then, the scope of service management and marketing is summarized. Thereafter, consequences for marketing of the service and relationship approach are discussed, followed by seven ‘rules’ of service. Finally, barriers to achieving results in an organization are presented.

A SUMMARY OF MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS OF THE SERVICE PROFIT LOGIC

From a commercial point of view, adopting a service logic and applying service management principles in business requires a clear understanding of the Service Profit Logic and its implications for management. As we have demonstrated throughout this book, in a service organization the economic result is generated in a dramatically different way as compared to conventional product manufacturing. Therefore, the Service Profit Logic requires equally dramatic rethinking about several management issues. This rethinking, pointed out and discussed in the previous chapters, is summarized in Table 17.1.

TABLE 17.1

Managerial implications of the Service Profit Logic.

Marketing management

Holistic customer management through ...